There were still more than ten days until the World Cup began; it was not something that could simply start at a moment's notice.
But as the World Cup drew closer, warm-up games around the world did indeed become increasingly frequent.
Quite a few national teams had even come to China early to play games and get used to the competition environment in advance.
After playing two games against Japan Team, China Team moved on to Wuhan to take part in the Four Nations Tournament.
This Four Nations Tournament carried tremendous weight. Besides China Team, the other three teams were France Team, Brazil Team, and Canada Team.
This was also a sign of China Team's rising strength.
As the Defending Champions of the Olympics, with Tang Tian and FIBA's strength ranking behind them,
other countries were willing to face a powerhouse like China Team, especially when that powerhouse was also the host nation.
The World Cup groups had long since been decided. Other than Group A, the groups were as follows.
Group B: Greece, Venezuela, Korea, Cameroon
Group C: Australia, Iran, Brazil, Tunisia
Group D: Angola, Philippines, Italy, Serbia
Group E: Canada, Slovenia, USA, Japan
Group F: Russia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Montenegro
Group G: Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Jordan
Group H: Turkey, Senegal, Lithuania, Spain
Under World Cup rules, the top two teams from each group advanced to the second round, making sixteen teams in the World Cup Top 16.
Then Groups AB, CD, EF, and GH would be reorganized into new Groups I, J, K, and L.
The top two teams in Groups I, J, K, and L would advance to the Quarter-finals, the final eight.
Brazil, France, and Canada belonged to Groups C, E, and G respectively.
Under this format, the earliest they could meet would be